Saturday, October 27, 2018

Does your business have a visible positive strategy, or do your customers and employees still see your primary focus as closing more sales and killing competitors? Certainly that has been the strategy of many companies, and has worked in the past, but today’s customers and workers are looking for more. They want relationships, positive experiences, and a win-win for society.

With the pervasive and instant communication of social media and the Internet, businesses can no longer hide behind the mask of their own hype, either inside the company or outside. The right positive strategy is integral to claiming leadership as well as making it happen.

I just reviewed the classic book, “The Strategic Leader’s Roadmap,” by Harbir Singh and Michael Useem from the Wharton School, which provides some specific steps along the way. I believe these steps are especially critical to the success of entrepreneurs who are rolling out new businesses today. It all starts with setting the right company strategy, including these elements:

Inspirational statement of purpose and direction. The old mission statements declaring your intent to be the “low-cost provider” is no longer a motivating vision for employees or customers. Engaging visions today include elements of social and environmental responsibilities, as well as economic returns to constituents.

Market and customer positioning. Clearly focusing on the right market and customer profile sets your competitor differentiation. It starts with understanding the drivers of customer excitement in advocating your solution, and ways to strengthen relationships. When customers are excited, your team becomes more engaged and productive.

Customer and employee value propositions. What are the company’s solutions and practices that will be seen as win-win value by all constituents? Your managers and everyone on your team needs to understand how their actions and leadership relate to value provided. The strategy must drive leadership so that leaders can drive the strategy.

Competitive and leadership leverage. A good strategy provides opportunities for internal actions and leaders to optimize and extend a firm’s competitive advantage. This requires effective communication of intent, flexibility in implementation, and positive rewards for innovation and initiative in improving customer experience and quality.

Constant restructuring for future advantage. A strategy that does not evolve as the market changes is a losing strategy. The internal team must see a reward in fostering change and leadership, and customers must be energized by new and improved processes, practices, and solutions. The best strategies are dynamic, rather than fixed.

A positive business strategy allows you to lead strategically by mastering the elements of both, separately and as an integrated whole. The authors argue that strategic leadership is an acquired capability that can and must be mastered by managers at all levels. It needs to extend to the firm’s directors, as well as investors. Everyone has to think and act strategically.

Another growing force for strategic leadership is the evolution to globalization. New companies are automatically global in reach and visibility, which makes a lack of strategy more impactful, since there is no move to an alternate environment for correction and restart. You need to get it right the first time, or there may not be a next time.

Above all, no company can afford to confuse strategy with tactics. Strategy is the “what” part of the equation, and tactics are the “how” activities. Every business, especially startups, have limited resources to implement tactics, so they need to be totally clear on the strategy first. Even if you could unleash unlimited tactics, the results would be confusing and non-productive to employees and customers alike.

Business success is an elusive target – with over fifty percent of new businesses continuing to fail in the first five years. We are also seeing an increasing number of former leading businesses disappear from the scene, including Blockbuster, Kodak, and Sharper Image. Start with a focus on strategy, and keep it there. Maybe it’s time to check yours with your employees and your customers, and see how positive it is today.